Pennsylvania Report Left Out Poisons In Drinking Water Near Fracking Site

Source: www.businessinsider.com

Pennsylvania officials didn't report toxic metals found in drinking water from a private well near a natural gas drilling site, according to legal documents and reported by Jon Hurdle of The New York Times reports.
The omissions raise questions about the Pennsylvania government's connection to the oil and gas industry, which has a vested interest in the natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale beneath Pennsylvania and three other states.
Seven plaintiffs brought a lawsuit against companies serving the gas industry that claims natural gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, within a mile of their homes in southwestern Pennsylvania contaminated their drinking water and caused serious illnesses.

There are no questions, only answers. Corbett is deeply in debt to the fracking industry and does not care about protecting the citizens or the environment. He is the poster-boy of how corporate greed can corrupt a government.

6. Thanks for posting this

We are fighting fracking in CO, especially in my city of Longmont where it is on the ballot. Oil and gas consortium has spent $500K to fight our measly $20K. This may help some who are still on the fence.

7. The IRS Gives Energy Investors a Gift

The IRS Gives Energy Investors a Gift
New ruling is good for chemical MLPs and income seekers

With their high and potentially tax-deferred income, investors have been chomping at the bit get their hands on every master limited partnership (MLP) unit in sight. Aside from the typical 5% to 8% dividends these firms kick out, roughly 80% of the taxes on distributions are deferred until investors sell their partnership shares.

That makes them quite lucrative for shareholders willing to put up with the additional tax-time reporting hassles that come with owning MLPs — and considering that the Federal Reserve’s low interest rate policies aren’t ending anytime soon.

On top of that, there are plenty of advantages for firms that set-up or spin-off operations into the tax structure. And for some them, those rewards are about to get even better.

New IRS Ruling
Changes to the tax code back in 1986 allowed for pipeline firms to be structured as partnerships in order to stimulate construction of domestic energy infrastructure. This allowed MLPs to avoid paying corporate taxes by passing on most of their free cash flow as tax-deferred distributions to investors.

Those payouts get even juicer thanks to the continued relationship between GPs and their publicly traded MLP subsidiaries. After acquiring new pipelines or gathering facilities, GPs will often pass along or “drop down” some of the prime assets into their MLPs.

This allows the MLP to grow its distributable cash flow. These asset sales are priced at a level that guarantees cash flow accretion for the MLPs and enables the MLPs to raise distributions at a faster rate. The general partner benefits directly from increased distributions on the limited partner units it owns as well as from increased incentive distributions — all while avoiding taxation on those assets.

Not every firm meets the requirements of becoming a MLP. The section of the tax code specifically lays out that those businesses whose “income and gains derived from the exploration, development, mining or production, processing, refining, transportation or the marketing of any mineral or natural resources” can qualify. While some “non-energy” MLPs do exist — like timber firm Pope Resources (NASDAQ: POPE) — the bulk of the focus on transportation or extracting of hydrocarbons.

Well, for now, but a new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruling could change that.

Last week, the IRS ruled that income from steam crackers — plants that are designed to processing natural gas liquids (NGLs) into chemicals called olefins — qualify for the MLP operating structure. The IRS also said that income from marketing, transporting and storing these olefins qualifies as MLP income.

Olefin and ethane production in the U.S. is expected to surge as current producers have access to huge and cheap reserves brought about by the hydraulic and fracturing revolution. Overall, analysts expect North American olefin manufacturers to generate substantial operating income until significant new NGL cracking capacity is built — probably sometime in 2018.

8. Pittsburgh, Pa. – State representative Jesse White

Just The Facts: “Outspoken Opponent” of Marcellus Shale Continues Misinformation Campaign
BY FEED: MARCELLUS SHALE COALITION IN GAS INDUSTRY
NOVEMBER 2, 2012
Pittsburgh, Pa. – State representative Jesse White – an “outspoken opponent” of safe, tightly-regulated, clean-burning American natural gas development – has doubled-down on his misguided public relations efforts. In his latest salvo, Mr. White claims that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) “developed a specialized computer-code system to manipulate the test results for residents whose water was tested by the DEP over concerns of adverse effects from gas drilling operations,” while also going as far to suggest that “someone belongs in a jail cell” potentially.

The only shred of manipulation here, of course, is from those opposed to job-creating American natural gas development – which has helped propel Washington County (Mr. White’s legislative district) to third in the nation in job growth – including a plaintiff’s attorney, who, like Mr. White, continues to lob unsubstantiated claims. The foundation of Mr. White’s fragmented argument is that DEP omitted certain water quality findings in its report to landowners who had brought legal challenges to a nearby natural gas producer.

What is missing from this flurry of allegations, though, is that the Association of Public Health Laboratories – an independent, non-profit organization that reviews public laboratories and makes recommendations to improve organizational structure and scientific practices – conducted a peer-reviewed analysis of DEP’s testing laboratory, determining the lab to be “well-managed, efficient and highly functional,” capable of meeting the varied needs of a statewide regulatory agency. Also not to be overlooked is that Mr. White has a pattern of rushing to judgment, taking a guilty-until-proven-innocent approach with the natural gas industry in this district.